The Do’s and Don’ts of the System Design Interview
Explore the structured method for tackling System Design Interview questions, moving from requirement gathering to component selection. Define data characteristics and functional needs, then justify architectural choices by openly discussing trade-offs and design weaknesses. Avoid critical interview pitfalls.
What to do during the interview
Candidates should strive to be original. Interviewers often ask the same questions repeatedly, so reproducing a generic design is unlikely to impress them.
Since interviews can be stressful, having a structured plan is a valuable strategy. While there are many ways to approach a System Design problem, we recommend the following technique.
Strategize, then divide and conquer
We recommend including the following activities somewhere in the interview:
Ask refining questions
We must understand the design problem and its requirements. To do this, we can adopt a product manager's mindset and prioritize main features by asking the interviewer refining questions. The goal is to guide the interviewer through our thought process and demonstrate why our design is effective. These interviews gauge our ability to logically derive a system from vague requirements.
We need to ensure we are solving the right problem. It is helpful to divide requirements into two groups:
